Popham Colony Artifacts

Champlain's Map, Phippsburg and Georgetown, ca. 1605

Research and descriptions by Maine's First Ship students from Morse High School

Samuel de Champlain, an explorer and master cartographer from France, explored the Kennebec with a group of men in 1605. The map he drew shows the areas of Phippsburg and Georgetown at the mouth of the Kennebec River.

He and his men were the first Europeans to set foot on the Kennebec. Champlain made a very detailed map of the "Quinibequy" (Kennebec) because he thought that the area would be suitable for colonization.

Sabino Head, the location of Fort St. George, which was built by the first English colonists in 1607, is just below the "E" on this map.